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Nowhere Man

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“Nowhere Man”
“Nowhere Man” cover
Single by The Beatles
from the album Rubber Soul
B-side "What Goes On"
Released 15 February 1966 (US)
Format 7"
Recorded Abbey Road Studios: 21 October 1965
Genre Rock
Length 2:43
Label Parlophone (UK)
Capitol (US) 5587
Writer(s) Lennon/McCartney
Producer George Martin
The Beatles singles chronology
"We Can Work It Out" / "Day Tripper"
(1965)
"Nowhere Man"
(1966)
"Paperback Writer"
(UK-1966)
I'd spent five hours that morning trying to write a song that was meaningful and good, and I finally gave up and lay down. Then 'Nowhere Man' came, words and music... the whole damn thing, as I lay down. So letting it go is what the whole game is. You put your finger on it, it slips away, right? You know, you turn the lights on and the cockroaches run away. You can never grasp them.

—John Lennon, 1980

That was John after a night out, with dawn coming up. I think at that point in his life, he was a bit wondering where he was going.

—Paul McCartney, 1984

I remember we wanted very treble-y guitars-- which they are-- they're among the most treble-y guitars I've ever heard on record. The engineer said, 'Alright, I'll put full treble on it,' and we said, 'That's not enough.' He said, 'But that's all I've got.' And we replied, 'Well, put that through another lot of faders and put full treble up on that. And if that's not enough we'll go through another lot of faders.' They said, 'We don't do that,' and we would say, 'Just try it... if it sounds crappy we'll lose it, but it might just sound good.' You'd then find, 'Oh it worked,' and they were secretly glad because they had been the engineer who put three times the allowed value of treble on a song. I think they were quietly proud of those things.

—Paul McCartney, 1988

The Beatles perform "Nowhere Man" in Munich in 1966.

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